Mahavir Janma Kalyanak (Mahavir Jayanti)

🙏 Why it is celebrated

Mahavir Jayanti celebrates the birth of Vardhaman Mahavir (599 BCE), who taught ahimsa (non-violence), anekantavada (many-sidedness of truth) and aparigraha (non-possession).

📖 The story behind it

Queen Trishala, wife of King Siddhartha of Kundagram near Vaishali, saw auspicious dreams — fourteen in the Shwetambar tradition, sixteen in the Digambar — foretelling a great soul. The child was named Vardhaman, “the one who increases”, because the kingdom prospered from the day he was conceived. At thirty he renounced his palace, practised twelve and a half years of austerity and silence, attained omniscience, and spent thirty years teaching that every living being wants to live.

🪔 How to celebrate

• Join the rath yatra or shobha yatra with the Mahavir idol
• Perform abhishek and puja at the derasar or mandir
• Give food, water and medicine; free animals or support an animal shelter
• Read the Mahavir life story and his teaching “Live and let live”